I read a very interesting article called CMOs Need to Change How They Communicate to Their Fans in 2012, that is worth a look. In a survey of consumers and marketers, the expectations were not aligned regarding the reason someone “Likes” a brand on Facebook. The most glaring gap is in the questions shown below:

While it’s true that these consumers in the survey ranked high a desire to learn about new products, that is not the same as what the marketer thinks… that people want news on the brand and products. “New and different”, vs. “continually tell me about your products again” are very different things. And by and large, in this game-playing, high-expectations world we live in, customers, friends and followers don’t just want content – they want games, incentives, promotions and something to do, moreso than something else to read. The YouTube generation has a less than 2 minute attention span – they aren’t going to spend it reading a press release.

We need to ASK, in a formal survey of our friends, fans, followers, prospects and customers, why they follow us and what they seek from us. That’s one place to start. Some of the things marketers believe didn’t make the list at all for people who answered this survey, so if that’s the case with your batch of followers, throw out the pointless activities, trim the fat, and spend your marketing budget giving people what they will actually interact with instead of more of the same.

United Sponsored Sweepstakes

We do contests and promotions on Facebook for our clients, but haven’t done that for ourselves. I’m going to be looking at what we can do to make our updates – especially on Facebook – more interesting than noise this year. There are things even a creative agency can give away or do for people that don’t cost us much, but would benefit a prize winner greatly, like a site conversion to WordPress, or a rebrand of social media channels, for example. We could also design some unique things to make on zazzle.com to give away, like an iPad cover or messenger bag… not with our logo all over it, but with a cool design on it that benefits the recipient (or maybe our logo could be included, but very small and subtle.) Look at your business and see what you could do to bring a little fun to your social networks in the way of a contest or promotion of some type, even if you are a B2B service provider.

This is not the only study I’ve read that talks about the need for more interactivity and games, contests, etc. in the content mix. Below are some additional articles with more information and food-for-thought. If you have questions or want to brainstorm ideas about your Facebook content, let me know in the comments. Have a great week!

13 Best Practices for Restaurants on Facebook
This is an aside… I have noticed that whenever I post images of the food at Pandolfi’s Deli on the Facebook page, consumer interactions are increased, and quite often someone will come into the deli to eat because this prompted a reminder. This is EASY for you to do if you’re a restaurant or food seller of some type. People want to SEE and desire what they don’t have in front of them that moment. Help them, help you!